Stepping Stone
by madxworld
Summary: Tori loves to help people - it's what she does best. So when Cat begins acting strangely, Tori takes it upon herself to figure out what's going on. major cori friendship/implied puckentine.


**have some cori friendship, because female friendships are good for the soul. and in the spirit of pride month, also have a bisexual Cat Valentine.**

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 **stepping stone**

"I haven't been to an Applebee's in forever," Tori mused as she slid into the booth opposite of Cat, settling her purse down beside her on the leather seat. The restaurant's lighting was dim, and it was buzzing with teenagers and young adults. For ten o'clock on a Friday night, Tori was surprised that it wasn't as packed as she expected it to be.

"This one is so much better than the one we used to go to," Cat said, flicking her hair away from her face. "Oh! The wings here are so yummy!"

"So, you're liking life living in Venice, huh?" Tori asked, but their waiter arrived before Cat could answer her.

"Hey ladies, my name's Michael and I'll be serving you today," he said with a bright, dimpled smile. He was dark-skinned and lean with short hair and the beginnings of a bear. He must have only been a few years older than them. "Can I start you off with something to drink? Our new berry sangria half off tonight."

"I'll just have a water please," Cat said sweetly, batting her eyes at him. Tori wondered if Cat ever realized when she was being flirtatious or if it was completely subconscious.

"Sure, and for you?" Michael turned to Tori, and she felt her cheeks go red.

"A lemonade please," Tori ordered, and Michael nodded and announced he would give them a few minutes to decide what they wanted. She opened her menu; across from her, Cat was staring intently down at hers, lips pursed in thought. "That's some intense food-deciding," Tori commented with a short laugh.

"Help me!" Cat pleaded, glancing up with wide dark eyes. "I can't decide if I want sticks or artichoke dip or…" She trailed off, scanning the menu with a huff. "This is so hard."

"I think I'm going to get the sriracha shrimp," Tori said, nodded. "I say go for the sticks."

After ordering and receiving their food and drinks, there was a lull in their steady conversation, and Tori took this as an opportunity to bring up something that had been bothering her. She and the others had begun noticing subtle changes in Cat; how she stopped with her nonsense talk about her crazy brother, how little she ate, and how she was keeping secrets and withdrawing into herself. When Jade confronted her about it, Cat had shut down completely.

Beck had suggested that maybe Cat was, as it grew closer and closer to graduation, growing up. Not an impossible idea, but Tori trusted her gut instinct that it had to be something more.

"So, Cat," Tori began, prodding at a piece of shrimp with her fork. Cat looked up from dipping a mozzarella stick in her marinara sauce, brown eyes innocent and curious.

"What's up?"

Tori bit her lip. "Is there something...wrong?" She asked hesitantly, gauging how Cat's shoulders seemed to tense up. "We've all noticed that you weren't really acting like yourself, and you're distancing yourself from us, and - I'm just worried about you, that's all."

"Nothing's wrong." Cat shrugged, indifferent.

Not convinced, she tried again, worry gnawing at her stomach. "You'd tell me if there was though, right?" She asked softly. "You're my best friend, I just want you to be okay."

Cat stared blankly at her for a moment, before she sighed and lowered the stick onto her plate. She dusted off her fingers with a napkin, and her gaze flickered down - away from Tori. "It's sort of a long story," she said, voice quiet with defeat.

"Well, we have two plates of apps to get through," Tori said, unbothered.

Her small, red-haired friend shifted uncomfortably in her seat, eyes downcast. "It's about Sam."

"Has she been bothering you?" Tori questioned automatically, and it surprised her how protective - how _Jade like_ \- she sounded. The gang had always been a little skeptical of their roommate situation, having only met Sam once at Kenan's party a year ago. No one was sure what to think about Cat rooming with a brash internet celebrity with a criminal record.

Cat looked up in obvious surprise. "No!" She protested. "No, it's nothing like that, it's so much fun living with her. She can be mean sometimes, but she'd - she'd never...bully me, or anything. Sam hates bullies." She sighed, stirring the ice around in her water with her straw. Tori noticed that Cat was doing anything she could to avoid looking her in the eye. Cat had never expressed a problem with that before.

Tori waited patiently, deciding it best not to keep pushing her into talking lest she withdraw into herself again.

"Do you remember that night that me and Sam got kinda drunk and called you guys?" Cat asked, and Tori nodded, unsure of where this was going, as she reached to take a sip of her lemonade. Cat took a deep breath, her cheeks flushing red. "Well, after, we kind of...slept together?"

Tori choked on her drink in surprise, attracting the attention of the occupants at the table across from them. She waved them away dismissively, patting at her chest to stop coughing, while Cat's brows furrowed together in worry. "Are you alright, Tori?"

"I'm fine. You-" she cleared her throat, shock and disbelief evident on her face. She lowered her voice, leaning forward. "You two had _sex_!?"

"Um...yes?"

"You can't just say that and not explain!"

"We were drunk!" Cat cried, her voice hushed. She frowned, and her apprehension was clear in her face. "She kissed me first, and then it kind of just escalated from there. The thing is though, I really liked it when she kissed me. I guess some part of me always wondered what it would have been like to kiss her, because I was always really attracted to her. And we weren't even that drunk when it happened, either. I was thinking clearly." Cat shook her head, cheeks flushed. "God, this is so embarrassing."

Tori said nothing for a moment, chewing at the inside of her cheek. "I didn't know you like girls," she observed. Feeling a little hurt, she asked; "how come you never told me?"

Cat's gaze flickered down into her lap, and she fiddled with her fingers nervously. "I'm only just now coming to terms with it myself. That's what I was trying to distance myself from everyone. I was confused and scared and I didn't know what to think." She paused. "You don't...you don't hate me now, right?"

"What?" Tori gaped, her eyes wide. "Cat, no, of course not!" She reached across the table to grab one of her hands, fingers squeezing tight. "I could never hate you because of your sexuality, Cat, and neither would anybody else. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being gay, in fact I think it's really beautiful that-"

"Actually, I think I'm bisexual," Cat clarified, looking awkward but squeezing Tori's hand back nevertheless. "Does this mean we can still have sleepovers and you won't feel weird?"

"Of course," Tori reassured, and her heart hurt for her best friend for thinking that everyone she loved would turn her away just because she liked other girls. The notion seemed ridiculous to her; she thought Cat knew how much her friends loved her. "We can even have a sleepover tonight, how's that sound?"

Cat smiled, small, but bright. "Okay!"

Tori pulled her hand back and went for her fork, stabbing a piece of shrimp. "I still can't believe you two slept together," she said, shaking her head and putting the shrimp in her mouth. "Tell me all about it!"

"You sound like a teenage boy." Cat giggled, munching on a stick, before looking serious again. "Anyway, after that happened, things changed between us, I guess. We both remembered what happened the morning after, and neither of us were weird about it at first, but then I just...Tori, I think I might," she hesitated, her cheeks pink. "I think I might be in love with her?"

She raised her eyebrows and leaned back, chewing thoughtfully on her shrimp. Tonight was just full of surprises; of all things she had expected to be wrong, this was not it. "Wow," she breathed. "What makes you so sure?"

"Everything," Cat said, sounding wistful. "She became one of my best friends so quickly after she moved in, and I always loved her, as a friend, but now it just feels different. It's like I'm hanging onto every word she says, and I just want to kiss her like, _all_ the time. Everyday is a new adventure for us, it makes me feel like I'm on top of the world, like nothing can touch us, and I never want to experience that without her. I don't know, Tori, I can't explain how I know - I just know that I am, it's how I feel. And I can't tell her that I do because it'll ruin everything that we have and I feel like I'm suffocating because I don't know what to do."

"You don't know that it'll ruin everything," Tori suggested, trying to be optimistic but not overly so. The last thing she wanted Cat to do was to get her hopes up about something she wasn't even sure of. "How can you be so certain that Sam doesn't feel the same way?"

Cat shrugged daintily, swallowing. She was finding a particular fascination with her straw wrapper, now. "If I tell her and she doesn't, everything will change," she said. "I know Sam. She wouldn't be able to look at me without feeling awkward, and she'd probably break a lot of things. She'd leave, because that's what she does, and I'd be alone again. It was just...drunk sex. I'm not special enough to keep her here."

Tori's heart sank. "Cat," she said, brows dipped down. "Come on, you can't think like that. You are special, more than you know. I've never met anybody else quite like you, and it hurts me to know that you're thinking so low of yourself."

"I'm sorry."

"Personally, I think you should tell her. You always talk about her at school, all the things that she does for you that she wouldn't do for anyone else-"

"But that doesn't mean she loves me back! Or even likes me like that!" Cat cried. "It just means that I'm her friend, which she's said a bunch of times. Sort of."

She bit at her lip, index finger absentmindedly doodling swirls into the condensation on her lemonade glass. "Is not knowing truly the best thing for you, though? If you're really never going to tell her how you feel, have you at least been trying to move on?"

Cat's shoulders slumped. "I have no idea what I'm doing, Tori. None." She hesitated, looking up uncertainly. "Maybe I'll tell her. I'm really scared, but maybe I'll try."

"I understand why you're scared. You don't want to lose her," Tori said softly. "But I'll always be here in your corner, backing you up every step of the way. I won't say anything to anyone else, but if you decide to tell them, they will be too. You know how the boys are all so protective, and how Jade gets with you. She's like a mama bear. A black haired, terrifying mama bear with an eyebrow piercing."

Her best friend giggled shyly, not as animatedly as usual. Tori couldn't imagine what was going on in her mind. "Thanks, Tori," she said, smiling up at her.

"Anytime, Cat."

There was a brief pause before Cat spoke again. "Do you want to get dessert?" She asked, a tinge of hopefulness in her voice. When Tori glanced up from her shrimp, she was met with wide, brown puppy dog eyes. She always thought that was ironic. Cats weren't supposed to have puppy dog eyes! It just didn't make any sense!

"Uh, absolutely!" Tori remarked. "Have you ever had the molten lava cake here?"

"I'm offended that you think I haven't!" Cat quipped, and the two of them laughed. Cat's expression suddenly turned soft. "I'm really glad that we're friends, Tori," she said.

Tori smiled. "I am too, Cat. I am too."

.

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"I got you wings from the Bees!" Cat announced as she entered the door to her apartment, holding the bag above her head and shaking it.

Sam launched herself from the couch, the smiling plastered on her face a balm; excitement and admiration in her eyes. "Wings? From the Bees?" She repeated, as if in disbelief. Cat nodded, smiling happily, as she handed them over. Sam took it without hesitation, digging into the bag to produce the box of buffalo wings.

"Boneless and _slathered_ with extra honey barbecue sauce," Cat said knowingly, closing the door behind Tori once she was inside. "And celery," she added, poking Sam's side, "because it's healthy for you."

"Healthy-smealthy," Sam waved a dismissive hand before grabbing Cat's elbow, speaking earnestly. "You know me so well."

Cat giggled and dropped her purse onto the floor by the door, following her friend over to the kitchen. Sam received a fork and plopped back onto the couch, stabbing at a boneless wing before biting into it with a loud groan of satisfaction.

Tori, seated on top of one of the barstools at the kitchen counter, raised an eyebrow over at Cat in amusement. "Wow, she really likes her wings."

Rummaging through the fridge for a water, Cat threw her best friend a grin over her shoulder. "You should see her when she has meatballs," she said. "Once, I made a whole bowl of them for our throbbing moon party, and she ate _all_ forty-five!"

"You make the meatiest meatballs to meatball!" Sam defended through a mouthful of food. "Let me live, woman!"

"Forty-five," Tori whistled as Cat handed her a water bottle, shaking her head. "That's impressive."

"Thanks, Topi." Sam threw her legs up, leaning against a British Invasion pillow, happily munching on her boneless wings. "So, what'd you guys get?"

Cat propped her elbows up on the kitchen counter and uncapped her water. "I got mozzarella sticks and Tori got sriracha shrimp! Oh! And we also shared a molten lava cake! It was sooo huge and really creamy on the inside and-"

"Okay!" Sam cut her off. "Don't need to rub it in."

"Sorry, Puckle," Cat giggled softly. "You could have came if you wanted to."

"Eh," her roommate waved her fork, boneless wings impaled on the throngs. "That would have required paying and actually getting off of the couch. Plus, Tori said you two needed some alone time to talk. How was that?"

Tori smiled knowingly and met Cat's eyes.

" _Enlightening_."

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 **please feel free to leave your thoughts in a review :) except for nonconstructive criticism! xx**


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